Statistics Canada has officially released its jobs report for October, with Waterloo Region’s numbers heading in the right direction, but still remaining well above the national average.
The agency stated that the country’s unemployment rate rose to 6.7 per cent in October, alongside a loss of around 47,000 jobs.
“The unemployment rate rose 0.2 percentage points to 6.7 per cent in October, as more people searched for work, Statistics Canada said in its release.
“This marked a second consecutive monthly increase in the unemployment rate. The unemployment rate in October was down 0.2 percentage points year over year and remained below the recent peak of 6.9 per cent recorded in April 2026.”
It said that the wholesale and retail trade sector led those job losses, but gains in construction and education offset some of those numbers.
“Just under one in five unemployed people in September had found work in October. This proportion, referred to as the job-finding rate, was slightly lower than 12 months earlier, but well below the average for the same months from 2017 to 2019.”
In Waterloo Region specifically, the unemployment rate for Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo actually headed in the opposite direction, dropping 6 points, from 7.7 per cent to 7.1 per cent.
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While residents will be pleased to see the decline, the region still sits well above the national average in regard to its unemployment rate, currently tied for 31st place amongst the top 42 cities and municipalities across Canada.
The numbers released by StatCan also show that “The percentage of persons living in households experiencing financial difficulties in Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo was 35.2 per cent in October 2026,” compared with 33.5 per cent in October 2025.
Meanwhile, the rate for the province was right in between the region and that national average, with Ontario’s unemployment rate sitting at 7.3 per cent, up 3 points from 7 per cent in September.
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